King Island Distillery Bass Strait Waterwitch Vodka
Waterwitch vodka is one of those local craft products that really stretches the definition of what it says on the label. Most people understand vodka, at least in the modern sense, to be clean, crisp and neutral. That’s almost the point of the style. Waterwich, on the other hand, smells somewhere between vodka, moonshine (read: unaged whisky) and a white rum, the original sources of fermentable sugar clearly present on the nose. Made with a combination of Australian malted barley, malted wheat, malted rye, sugar and King Island filtered rainwater, this is definitely a product that revels in those bold flavours rather than trying to distill them away for a neutral product, with plenty of grain character on the nose without being overpowering. Those chewy, sweet grains on the palate show good integration, but I'd like to see a little more texture and complexity.
